China first lady pushes demand for home brands

Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan has given domestic brands a new lease of life in the wake of her trip to Russia and Africa with President Xi Jingping.Some of the time-honored brands in China which had faded from the market are back in demand. Among them are Baiqueling (Pehchaolin) cream, once a sure-to-sell product of the 82-year Shanghai brand, RUANS pearls, a high-end jewelry brand gifted by the nation to many foreign guests, and exquisite shuxiu (Sichuan style embroidery) works.Peng has become a media and Internet sensation with her choice of attire and gifts. The home-made products that she gifted or wore have caught the attention of the netizens, boosting their popularity and sales in China.Not to mention that there has been a wave of "Buy Chinese" among the youngsters. "I believe these products are of high quality because I trust our first lady," a netizen said. "We should become stronger by ourselves! I love domestic brands," wrote another.Baiqueling products in particular have enjoyed high sales. A sales assistant at a Beijing supermarket said more and more young ladies are having a look at the time-tested brand, Legal Evening News reported.Beiqueling's official online site on taobao.com sold 210 sets of a facial care box on Thursday alone, which was equal to three-day sales, the paper claimed.The online search index for Baiqueling - indicating the search trend and not the clicks - jumped from about 7,000 to 12,900. That figure shot up to 8,087 on Wednesday to 27,078 on Thursday.The trend was the same for RUANS pearls whose search index rose from an abysmal zero to 2,483. Taobao has predicted that demand for Chinese brands will continue next week."It is a great promotion for Chinese brands," said Wang Yong, general secretary of Brand China Industry Union, a non-government group which promotes Chinese brands.He said some rich Chinese who looked down at domestic brands may now be forced to look inwards and buy home products, Legal Evening News reported.Until late 70s and early 80s, some of the Chinese brands such as Baiqueling hand lotion, Xiefuchun cosmetics, Wangxingjie hand-held fans, and Zhangxiaoquan scissors enjoyed a status-symbol that matched those enjoyed by the imported brands now.In the 1920s and 30s Shanghai was a major manufacturing center producing around half of China's industrial output. Shanghai-made products like Forever bicycles, Warrior sneakers and Shanghai VIVE cosmetics were popular high-end goods. But they lost their spark in the late 1970s when products from abroad swamped the market.Peng's popularity is turning that tide once again, giving birth to a wave of nostalgia, especially among the young Chinese.